Friday, June 29, 2012

Dan and I went for a quick run around the islands before I went to work for the day. We did the trip in just under two hours and averaged 4.1 kt (7.6 kph) - probably a bit of a boost from the currents!. Conditions were good and it was nice to be back on the water after a two week break (I was away at an educational technology conference in San Diego last weekend)

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Today I was down at Ship Point where I had volunteered to do a rolling demonstration. The weather was pretty windy which made it tricky at the booths. The sand sculpture was cool and the pirate school was neat. I went over to join in the kayak race only to find that there were two of us racing - Graham Henry and me! I came second to someone 30 years my junior, but had a good warm up. I then did a rolling demo at Ship point with announcing by Deb Leach. The show seemed to go well and I had lots of questions from the audience. The day finished off sunny but still windy.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Dan and I went for a quick afternoon paddle around Chatham Island. It was a windless moist west coast day with very little current as well. We saw several rhinioceros auklets with beaks full of small fish!
Tomorrow I will be participating the Harbour celebration http://celebratevictoriaharbour.ca/ - should be another great day on and off the water.

Friday, June 08, 2012

Dan and I went out for a quick paddle around Chatham and Discovery before I went to work in the morning. 2 1/4 hour round trip with a 7 kph (3.8 knot) average. There were some nice waves in Baynes to surf on and we played for a few minutes. I am enjoying my Greenland T (HD)!

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

I went up to the Broughton Archipelago again this year with our school's grade 10 experiential programme - co-leading with Nick and Toni.
Before heading up to Telegraph Cove, I was a bit worried about the weather, especially the heavy rains predicted. As it turns out, we were blessed with pretty good conditions and basically only rain at night (some showers by day).
Our first day was very windy for our water taxi ride to Echo Bay, but we did eventually nmake it after a very slow crossing of Johnstone Strait. Echo Bay was great as usual and we had a nice visit with Yvonne who was looking after Billy Proctor's museum while Billy was away checking out a nearby river after the storm.
Our second day (first paddling day) was spent paddling from Echo Bay to Owl Island, stopping to check out and discuss a fish farm operation north of Midsummer Island. There was a cougar alert for Owl Island that we found out was actually from last summer.
The third day had strong predicted winds, so we did a morning paddle around Owl and spent some time looking at intertidal life and rocks.
The fourth day was spent paddling to Village Island and then on to Mound Island to camp. Village island was as overgrown as ever but we saw some garter snakes sunning themselves on a plank amongst the bear poo piles! I made a detour after lunch to check out an alternate campsite near the Hail Islets and met the group by Berry Island where we checked out the petroglyphs before making camp at mound. I managed to go for a dip at Mound Island and it felt good to get clean(er) after 3 days.
Our fifth day was spent paddling from Mound to Hanson Island where we visited David Garrick at the Earth Embassy and learned about culturally modified trees and first nations use of the land. Our last camp spot was by Weynton Island which we reached after an idyllic afternoon paddle in sunny calm conditions. There was a 17.6 ft high tide at night and a 0.6 ft low tide the next morning, so we saw a huge tidal range.
Our last morning involved a paddle over to the Blinkhorn Peninsular to look at pillow basalts and then on back to telegraph Cove where we started our adventure. Thanks for the great times Nick and Toni!
Here is a link to some photos from the trip: